Is winter finally on its way? Behold a chipmunk for that answer
It’s been a tough couple of winters in Rappahannock County for anybody who makes a living plowing snow. But that could change in the coming weeks, as atmospheric scientists tell us the polar vortex over the North Pole continues to split in two, potentially unleashing blasts of bitter arctic air and paralyzing snowstorms over the midAtlantic region.
Let’s not hold our breath. In fact, have you observed any chipmunks lately?
Once upon a time in Rappahannock County, before satellite photos and computer models provided more accurate weather forecasting, old timers had no way of knowing how the polar vortex was behaving. They had to interpret natural signs — plants, animals, insects and birds — as harbingers of harsh winters.
One of the most common ways to predict the severity of a winter was to observe squirrels, we read in back issues of the Rappahannock News, which began publishing in 1877. The more active they were collecting acorns, chestnuts and hickory nuts usually meant stormy weather on the horizon.
Rappahannock residents, we read, also paid heed to wooly worms, spiders, the thickness of fur on animals, muskrat houses, beaver dams (if the north side of the dam has more sticks than the south side keep your scarves and mittens handy), while any sudden appearance of redbirds meant heavy snow was in the o ng.
Years ago, Stant Weaver of Washington recalled his father predicting the winter weather by examining the insides of a hog (we will spare readers the gory details). The younger Weaver, meanwhile, understandably preferred waiting for the rst snowfall and then counting how many days old the moon was at the time, which revealed the number of snows in store for the winter.
“Now, we’re not going down to the courthouse to swear by these,” Weaver said. “But this is what they used to say, long ago.”
Elisabeth Johnson of Sperryville, wife of farmer and orchardist C. E. Ned Johnson Jr., recalled to a past editor of this newspaper that “if chipmunks hold their tails high when they run, it’s going to be a hard winter. But personally, I’ve always thought chipmunks carried their tails high!”